fessed poet's "copia verborum" seduced him from the more Den manen unten sunnen Die gebin ire liht mit wunnen. Si geberent vrost unte hizze so starc; Die wolken dragint den reginguz, Mit loube dekkit sich der walt, Daz wilt habit den sinin ganc, T Scone is der vügilsanc: Ein iwelich ding diu é noch havit, Die virkerten sich in diu doleheit. Thunder and wind speed on, And clouds pour forth their rain : Soft rings the sweet bird's song: All things obey the laws That God creating gave, Save the two latest born, Whom noblest, best, he framed ; In all this period it can hardly be supposed but that the taste for popular poetry remained uneffaced by the attempts made to divert it, and that it was not confined to themes of martial enterprise. As early as the reign of that gloomy monarch whom, with the French, we have honoured with the title of "Debonnaire," but whom the Germans more characteristically called "the pious," it appears to have been necessary to address a formal edict (see M. Schlegel's lectures) to the German nuns, restraining the indulgence of their passion for myne-lieder, or love-songs. Thus was the ground gradually preparing for that bright harvest of lyric poetry which was so abundant in the 12th and 13th centuries. That the seed had been long and deeply sown, we cannot doubt :— "Il n'appartient qu'à Jupiter de faire sortir de sa tête une Minerve toute armée," as M. Roquefort observes in the preface to his Glossary: yet we are sometimes told that this early school of German poetry was merely imitative, as arising out of the alliance between the Suabian emperors and the princes of Provence. It is easy, however, to see that the same causes which aroused the mind in other countries, operated as powerfully in Germany (we might go much further North if it were necessary); though foreign intercourse doubtless excited emulation, and even the disputes of Henry IV. and V. with the popes in the latter half of the 11th century, contributed to awaken the national spirit by bringing it into contact with that of other countries. The poetry of passion, of gay and gallant feeling, burst forth with all the freshness of novelty, and drove dullness into the shade for a season; though in Germany, as well as elsewhere, it returned when the flame of chivalry had died away, and the church resumed its benumbing influence over the mind. During the reigns of the Saxon emperors, great progress was made in many departments of literature not within our view; but with the Suabian dynasty opens (at least so far as history has preserved its records) the splendid æra of early German poetry, which flourished most amidst the storms and dissensions that perpetually agitated the empire. In the beginning of the 12th century the Suabian family began its line of emperors with Conrad III. Frederic duke of Suabia, surnamed Barbarossa or Redbeard, was on the death of his uncle unanimously elected sovereign by the factious chieftains of Italy and Germany. For a time all seemed inclined to heal the divisions by which the empire had been so long harassed: but the Germanic body was composed of too discordant materials, and was too much exposed to the restless intrigues of the Papal court, to remain long in peace. Frederic steered a manly course through the difficulties which every where assailed him. He was an able and active monarch, a skilful general, and a shrewd politician; one who would (like many of his successors) have been a far greater prince if he had not been encumbered by the oppressive appendage of Italian possessions and dignities. He caught the religious as well as chivalric feeling of the age; but experience taught him to distinguish his efforts in the holy wars above those of his predecessors, by greater prudence and a more discerning policy. Germany for a long time resisted the infatuation of the first Crusaders, and laughed at the needy crowds who thronged across its plains to their discomfiture: but Conrad was at last preached into joining the second crusade, after repeated and determined opposition to the calls of St. Bernard. In that expedition Frederic served, and was a witness of the disastrous consequences of improvident zeal. The Saxon historian says, "Si non fuit bona, prædicta expeditio, pro dilatatione terminorum vel commoditate corporum, bona tamen fuit ad multarum salutem animarum." [Otto Frising. de Gestis Frider. I. Imp. lib. 1. c. 60.] and we may add, that it taught Frederic, if he could not resist the torrent of zeal, at least to temper and direct it by prudence. Accordingly, that part of the third crusade which he led was distinguished by discretion and politic precaution, more especially in preventing those from joining it who could not provide themselves with the means of subsistence, and in securing the respect and confidence of the people through whose territories he directed his march. If his sudden death in 1190 had not cut short his progress, the exertions of so able and experienced a general would most probably have been attended with highly successful results. The rising spirit of German literature found in this great man, as in all the succeeding members of his family, a zealous patron: and in his reign the band of Minnesingers commences with Henry of Veldig, who is generally supposed to be the earliest in point of date of those names of note which have been handed down to us*. Frederic had led an active * Yet it is singular that even Henry of Veldig is found lamenting over the degeneracy of his age from the good old rules of "rechten minne." Do man der rehten minne pflag Swer dis nu siht, und jens do sach, Tugende wend sich nu verkeren! BODMER'S COLLECTION I. 19. "When true love was professed, then also was honour cultivated; now by night and by day evil manners are learnt.-Alas! how may he who witnesses the present and witnessed the past, lament the decay of virtue!" |